Senate Recess Delayed to Address Healthcare Reform

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delayed the Senate August recess to give lawmakers more time to revise the healthcare bill that overhauls the Affordable Care Act.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has delayed the Senate’s recess for the first two weeks of August in order to tackle its hefty agenda on healthcare reform and raise the debt ceiling. Although the Senate is still working to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, McConnell shared plans to deliver a reworked healthcare bill before the end of the week in order to fast-track the Congressional Budget Office’s cost and impact analysis to early next week, reports the Washington Post.

“Once the Senate completes its work on healthcare reform, we will turn to other important issues including the National Defense Authorization Act and the backlog of critical nominations,” McConnell said in an announcement.

Year after year, NFIB members report that healthcare is their top priority. NFIB members across the country have been pressuring Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. In 24 states, NFIB state directors published op-eds calling on their representatives to vote “yes” on the Senate healthcare bill.

“The Senate bill provides massive tax relief by eliminating or delaying 11 of the most burdensome Obamacare taxes, which are crushing small businesses and driving up costs,” said NFIB/Texas State Director Will Newton in The Texas Tribune.

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, NFIB/Wisconsin State Director Bill G. Smith brought attention to federal government research that shows health insurance costs grew while benefit flexibility declined for small businesses under the Affordable Care Act. That led to a 25 percent drop in small businesses offering health insurance within five years of the ACA’s implementation.

“This is a crucial moment for our senators,” said Smith. “We hope they remember that small business employs most of the state’s private-sector workforce. It’s the backbone of our economy.”